Governor forces NYPD to delete stop-and-frisk data

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Gov. David Paterson yesterday struck down a controversial NYPD stop-and-frisk database -- the very tool that police say helped them solve a savage crime in Port Richmond last spring.

The governor wielded his pen to eliminate the massive database of putative criminals, which included everyone whom police stopped on Staten Island and in the other boroughs, questioned, and sent on their way.

Paterson derided the former practice as "not a policy for a democracy."

He signed the law over the vehement objections of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who said the city was losing a key crimefighting tool.

Staten Island Advance/Bill LyonsPolice stop and frisk a group of people near the South Beach Houses as they search for suspects in an armed robbery.

But the governor insisted the essence of the strategy is unaffected. "This law does not in any way tamper with our stop-and-frisk policies," Paterson said. "What it does is, it disallows the use of personal data of innocent people who have not done anything wrong."

City Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore), who joined the governor in his Manhattan office for yesterday's signing, applauded the change.

"The preservation of personal information in the database of persons who are not guilty of a crime flies in the face of the concept of 'innocent until proven guilty,' and has served to stigmatize disproportionate numbers of people, especially young men of color," Ms. Rose said.

She characterized the new policy, which takes effect immediately, as striking a balance between community policing and the preservation of civil liberties.

Police say the database helped to solve crimes, including anti-gay and anti-Hispanic bias attacks like the ones recently plaguing the Island's North Shore.

In perhaps the most notorious case, the vicious beating of baker Rodulfo Olmedo on Easter Monday, three of the suspects were found by police through the use of the database.

Tyrone Goodman and Rolston Hopson of Elm Park and William Marcano of West Brighton had been questioned during a stop-and-frisk in Port Richmond months before. They weren't charged with any crime. But when Hate Crimes detectives ran their first names and descriptions, supplied by a tipster, and the Port Richmond location through the database, the three popped up as suspects.

"Albany has robbed us of a great crimefighting tool, one that saved lives," Kelly said in a statement. "Without it, there will be, inevitably, killers and other criminals who won't be captured as quickly, or perhaps ever."

Assemblyman Lou Tobacco (R-South Shore) said the law will render New Yorkers less safe and more vulnerable."

"During these tough economic times, when we are asking the NYPD to do more with less, we should be increasing the crimefighting resources that they have, not taking them away," he said.

State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) hailed the new law.

"To rescind the requirement would not hurt crime-prevention, but it would protect the civil liberties of those who have done nothing wrong," she said. "There is no reason to collect the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of people who were randomly in an area."

Paterson said he had met with Kelly and spoke to Bloomberg, but had not been persuaded that the database protects the city from crime.

"Civil justice, and I think common sense, would suggest that those who are questioned and not even accused of crimes be protected from any further stigma or suspicion," Paterson said.

He signed the bill at a press conference with the bill's sponsors and supporters, including the city's public advocate, Bill de Blasio.

"Today's reform of the stop-and-frisk database reaffirms a basic value of this country. The government cannot keep tabs on people who have done nothing wrong," de Blasio said.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, praised Paterson for signing the legislation.

"Innocent people stopped by the police for doing nothing more than going to school, work or the subway should not become permanent criminal suspects," said Lieberman. "By signing this bill, the Paterson administration has put itself on the right side of history and leaves an important legacy in support of civil rights, civil liberties and common sense."

In his sponsor's memo, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, (D-Brooklyn), said that in 2009, the Police Department stopped 574,304 people, nearly 90 percent of them people of color, and nine of 10 were released without any further legal action. Data show 2.5 million stops since 2005.

Sen. Eric Adams, a Brooklyn Democrat and former NYPD captain who sponsored the bill, said yesterday it protects innocent people from being targeted by police, especially minorities.

"Our fear is not to have our sons [be] victims of aggressive criminal behavior, but we also don't want our children to be victims of aggressive police behavior," Adams said.

The automated database, believed to be the only one in the country, grew out of a law requiring police to keep details such as age and race on anyone they stop, and it was envisioned as a way to safeguard civil rights.

The law, enacted in 2001, required the Police Department to turn information over to lawmakers every quarter. It was aimed at uncovering whether police were disproportionately stopping black and Hispanic men. But police also indefinitely held on to addresses and names of people stopped -- information not required by the law.

Police are still permitted to enter into an electronic database generic identifiers, such as gender, race and location of the stop.